Flouring and breading food is a common procedure. There are many different foods that are floured and then fried such as zucchini, calamari, chicken, egg plant, shrimp, clam strips and oysters. The flouring process typically includes mixing flour and spices (e.g., salt, oregano, and black pepper) in a mixing bowl, dredging the food (e.g., zucchini, chicken, calamari, etc.) in the bowl to cover the surface of the food with the flour mixture and shaking off the excess flour mixture, and then frying the food. Besides flour, foods are sometimes coated or dusted with, for example, powdered sugar or cinnamon (e.g., zeppole after it comes out of fryer).
Oftentimes, a dipping step is added to the flouring process wherein the food (e.g., zucchini—calamari is wet and does not need the dipping) is dipped in egg and/or milk before dredging in the flour mixture.
A breaded exterior is sometimes desired on the food. The breading helps to seal in moisture when deep-frying or pan-frying foods and the breading also provides a crunchy and tasteful exterior. Breading includes a similar three-step process which helps keep the breading stuck to food instead of falling off in the hot oil: 1) dredge the item in flour; 2) dip it in egg wash; 3) coat it in breadcrumbs.
Particularly in a commercial kitchen, such as a restaurant, the flouring and/or breading process needs to be done quickly. Consequently, most commercial kitchens use stations where an open basin or bowl of the egg and/or milk dip is located, where an open basin or bowl of the flour mixture is kept, and a frying station preferably near the flour basin/mixture station. When the floured food, particularly calamari, is ordered, the cook/chef dips the calamari in the flour mixture shaking excess back into the flour mixture basin and then placed the floured food into the fryer. When a kitchen is busy, it is not uncommon for the dipping tasks into the flour mixture to be performed by hand.
Most commercial kitchens use the same basins of egg/milk and flour mixture during single day. The basins are usually not cleaned until the end of the day when the restaurant is closed and the customers are gone. A serious health risk is thereby created because the flour basin becomes contaminated between uses, especially when different foods are placed into the basin, such as, for example, certain types of raw foods, e.g., fish, beef, pork, and poultry. The need and desire to use “clean” ingredients and basins/trays to avoid the addition of unwanted bacteria (e.g. salmonella, listeria, and escherichia coli) and avoid food contamination (cross-contamination) and food-borne diseases is compromised due to the need for expediency and the costs for discarding unused materials. Use of “clean” ingredients is also important to protect people with food allergies. For example, people with Celiac's disease cannot have their food come in contact with other foods or utensils that have gluten. Technically, commercial kitchens that utilize such methods where egg/milk and/or flour mixtures are used repeatedly, may not be compliant with health and safety laws and regulations.
Multiple/repeated use of the egg/milk and/or flour mixtures for different foods can also create undesirable effects, such as, for example, altering the taste of the foods.
The time to prepare the food using different basins and stations also consumes highly valuable time, especially time to remove small coated food pieces (and leave the flour mixture behind) from a bowl of flour mixture (e.g. calamari) which oftentimes results in the leaving behind of a few small pieces of food among the flour. Those small pieces of food left behind in the flour mixture dry out and could, often do, mistakenly get used the next time the flour mixture is used.
In some kitchens, the food is prepared with however much flour is placed in the mixing bowl or basin with the food to be coated and all of the flour is poured into the fry basket. Excess fried flour is shaken off into the garbage creating waste. Sometimes more than half the flour originally used winds up in the garbage.
The existing hand process also creates more mess on the cook's hands. Regardless of whether gloves are used, the wet food and the dried flour are contacted leading to hands being coated in a cement-like fashion.
There is a need for a device to improve this flouring/breading process, especially for calamari. A device that allows a user to repeatedly prepare single servings of floured/breaded foods easily and readily without cross-contamination and without wasting large amounts of the pre-mixtures (e.g., the egg/milk and/or the flour mixture). There is a need for a flouring/breading device that is compact, easily handled and used, and effective for preparing servings of foods. There is a need for a flouring/breading device that can be easily cleaned when not in use.